Rao Chaganti

Assistant Research Scientist

CIGLR UM-SEAS
4840 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48108

Curriculum Vitae

In the News:

Citizen Science Used in Water Study

Photo Gallery

Dr. Rao Chaganti was part of a study at the University of Windsor that sought ‘Citizen Scientists’ for a water quality experiment. Photo Credit: Rich Garton.

Dr. Rao Chaganti, worked in professor Dan Heath’s lab at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor, and examined a microbial battery which can convert solid municipal waste in to ethanol. Photo Credit: University of Windsor.

Subba Rao Chaganti, a professor and researcher at the University of Windsor Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, examines water samples on Aug. 15, 2017, in Windsor. Photo Credit: Jason Kryk, Windsor Star.

While at the University of Windsor, adjunct professor Dr. Rao Chaganti was the recipient of the American Society for Microbiology’s 2019 Award for Early Career Environmental Research. Photo Credit: University of Windsor.

University of Windsor professor Subba Rao Chaganti discusses the results of the 2017 citizen-led water sampling effort at a conference on Tuesday, May 16, 2018. Photo Credit: Dale Molnar/CBC.

As a Post-doc, Dr. Rao Chaganti was named Canada’s Young Ambassador for the microbiology society. Photo Credit: University of Windsor.

University of Windsor adjunct professor Subba Rao Chaganti, professor Daniel Heath, PhD student Clare Venney and Windsor West MP Brian Masse attend a news conference calling on citizen scientists to help with water sampling at Masse’s constituency office Aug. 16, 2017. Photo Credit: Tom Morrison.

University of Windsor adjunct professor Subba Rao Chaganti demonstrates how citizen scientists will filter their collected water samples inside Windsor West MP Brian Masse’s constituency office Aug. 16, 2017. Photo Credit: Tom Morrison.

University of Windsor professor Jerald Lalman, right, watches as post doctoral fellow Subbarao Chaganti prepares sugar solutions that will be converted into hydrogen. Photo Credit: Windsor Star files.

Researcher Profile:

Dr. Subba Rao Chaganti recently joined CIGLR as an Assistant Research Scientist. Chaganti’s research focuses on understanding the structural and functional diversity of the microbial community (bacteria, archaea, and protists) and how they mutually interact within the aquatic, terrestrial and host associated environments, how they are influenced by biotic and abiotic mechanisms and how they are altered by aquatic invasive species and other anthropogenic inputs and its overall impact on the ecosystem process. To answer these questions his research shares a core set of interdisciplinary tools sourced from ecology, environmental biology, molecular genetics, and bioinformatics while viewing microbes as cellular components of the ecosystem body. As a part of CIGLR, he is working on projects distinguishing toxin-producing from non-toxin producing cyanobacterial blooms and improve short-term toxin forecasting by application of omics tools, identification of biotic and abiotic conditions that trigger the toxin genes of cyanobacteria, monitoring rare and aquatic invasive species using environmental DNA and its ecological impact, assessing lower food web dynamics and their importance to fisheries and mapping unknown trophic pathways from microbes to crustacean zooplankton.

Education:
  • 2008, Ph.D. in Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India
  • 2003, M.Sc. in Biotechnology, Periyar University, India
  • 2001, B.Sc. in Microbiology and Chemistry, Osmania University, India
Research Interest/Area of Expertise:
  • Identification of biotic and abiotic conditions that trigger the toxin genes of cyanobacteria
  • Assessing lower food web dynamics and their importance to fisheries
  • Monitoring endangered and aquatic invasive species using environmental DNA
  • Role of microbes in host-parasite interactions
Recent Publications:

VanMensel, D., SR Chaganti, IG Droppo and CG Weisener. 2019. Exploring bacterial pathogen community dynamics in freshwater beach sediments: A tale of two lakes. Environmental Microbiology. (DOI:10.1111/1462-2920.14860). [Altmetric Score]

Petri, B., SR Chaganti, P-S Chan and DD Heath. 2019. Phytoplankton growth characterization in short term culture assay using 18S metabarcoding and qRT-PCR. Water Research. (DOI:10.1016/j.watres.2019.114941). [Altmetric Score]

Shahraki, AH, DD Heath and SR Chaganti. 2019. Recreational water monitoring: Nanofluidic qRT‐PCR chip for assessing beach water safety. Environmental DNA. (DOI:10.1002/edn3.30). [Altmetric Score]

He, X., SR Chaganti and DD Heath. 2018. Population-specific responses to interspecific competition in the gut microbiota of two Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations. Microbial Ecology. (DOI:10.1007%2Fs00248-017-1035-6). [Altmetric Score]

All Publications

Recent Presentations:

SR Chaganti. (2019) Environmental Stress on Phenotype Plasticity: Is it Good or Bad or Worst for Natural and Engineered Ecosystems, ASM microbe 2019, San Francisco, CA June 20-24th.

SR Chaganti, AH Shahraki*, DD Heath. (2018) Citizen Scientists for large-scale water quality testing in the Great Lakes: Metabarcoding Microbes. Jun 18-22nd, IAGLR, University of Toronto, Scarborough, On, Canada.

AH Shahraki*, SR Chaganti, DD Heath. (2018) Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Microbial Community Composition of Recreational Water. Jun 18-22nd, IAGLR, University of Toronto, Scarborough, On, Canada.

A Skoyles*, C Weisener, SR Chaganti. (2018) Assessing the Microbial Community and Function of BioCord Bioreactors in Lagoon Wastewater Treatment. Jun 18-22nd, IAGLR, University of Toronto, Scarborough, On, Canada.

All Presentations